Spin my particles!

This is a new particle development I have being doing under the radar, one of the new year surprises, the good news is that the needed changes in Blender to allow this are minimal …. just a few lines patch and voila!

Though this time, is not a full simulation that will do the magic for you, this is a mixture of simulation plus artistic freedom/control … I will explain the full technique in future posts.

Recently an Intel developer has written a series of articles about realtime vortex simulation for games. The demo is spectacular and best of all runs in realtime. Sadly the algorithm is not open source and I wanted something similar in Blender… so you know the end, don’t you ;)?

I end up taking a different approach with similar results and I’m very pleased! my approach require more complex set up but more advanced user control and best of all is completely Lagrangian, I mean completely boundless , whether the Intel approach is a hybrid algorithm lagrangian/eulerian (lattice-particle method).

I took advantage of the fact that the current Blender particle system is a second order simulation system , where particles act as source of force field, and the current vortex particle field has the rotational vector very limited and locked to the particle velocity direction …. well, I have made a simple patch to allow more user control and watch yourself!

Something tells me we’re going to be seeing more magic / energy effects, although really this would be awesome for anywhere you need complex particle movements without being locked into a domain / box like with the current (still excellent) fluid / smoke sims. For some things that go over a large area (like a fast moving jet leaving a trail), this can be a real constraint. I can see this working really well for things like a truck driving through a snowstorm with the snowflakes swirling behind it, or a plane / blimp flying through clouds and having them swirl around the vehicle / propellers.

Great to see the flexibility of the new particles changes letting you create such nice motion effects as these. Happy to have you on Team Blender™, Farsthary!

Never doubted for an instant. Very, Very Nice. Nobody would even flinch if a rumor started I was leaving blender. I envy the way people care so much about you in the community. A real legacy leaves quite a wake and yours is huge(I mean boundless, well you get the joke). Thanks for all you do.

I’m the author of the Intel articles you cite. I noticed that you stated “Sadly the algorithm is not open source and I wanted something similar in Blender”.

To be clear, I’d be happy for you to use the algorithms in Blender. The copyright statements I included in the code state “All rights reserved” meaning that I control the rights to where the code goes. But I’d be happy to work with you to arrange for something to become GPL.

I’m mainly happy to see people putting it to use.

Also, be aware that Intel plans to release another article soon — probably in February — with more to follow.